Warriors: 41-13, No. 1 in the Western Conference, a half-game ahead of Houston.Mavericks: 17-37, No. 15 in the Western Conference, 24 games behind the Warriors.

Warriors: Were whipped by Oklahoma City 125-105 on Tuesday night at Oracle Arena. The loss marked the first time this season that Golden State had suffered back-to-back defeats. Paul George and Russell Westbrook combined for 72 points for the Thunder. Kevin Durant had 33 points for the Warriors and Stephen Curry scored a quiet 21.Mavericks: Lost to the Los Angeles Clippers 104-101 on Monday night at Staples Center. Dallas led 101-91 before the Clippers went on a 13-0 run over the final 4:42. Dirk Nowitzki became the sixth man in NBA history to surpass the 50,000-minute milestone, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kevin Garnett, Jason Kidd and Elvin Hayes. Dallas has lost six of its last seven games and nine of 11.

The Warriors lead the season series 3-0. … On Oct. 23, Golden State routed Dallas 133-103. Curry had 29 points, Durant 25 and Klay Thompson 21. Except for the second quarter, the Warriors dominated the Mavericks. In the first, third and fourth quarters, Golden State shot 60.3 percent from the field, including 13 of 29 (44.8 percent) from 3-point range. The Warriors also had 28 assists and 11 turnovers in those three periods. … On Dec. 14, the Warriors won their eighth in a row with a 112-97 victory at Oracle Arena. Durant had 36 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and two blocks as Golden State played without Curry, Draymond Green, Zaza Pachulia and Nick Young. Omri Casspi, cast into a starting role, was an all-around marvel while playing his best game of the season. He had season highs of 17 points and 11 rebounds, plus two blocked shots. … On Jan. 3, Curry hit a 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds left as Golden State held off pesky Dallas 125-122 at American Airlines Center. The Warriors led by as many as 12 in the fourth quarter and were ahead 120-110 before the Mavericks went on a 10-0 run. Curry, in his second game back after missing 11 because of an ankle sprain, had 32 points and eight assists. Thompson and Durant each had 25. Stanford product Dwight Powell had 21 off the bench for the Mavericks.

Losing two in a row and three of four is more than a blip on the radar for the Warriors. In the Bay Area, this seems like a full-blown disaster. But things could be worse. Just ask the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had lost 14 of 21 before beating Minnesota 140-138 in overtime on Wednesday night.

Is it merely a coincidence that the teams that have faced off in the past three NBA Finals are struggling as we approach the All-Star break? Over the last three seasons, the Warriors have played 62 playoff games and Cleveland has played 59. That’s about an extra three-quarters of a season wedged into a three-season window.

Durant is listed as questionable because of a left hand contusion. When he suffered this injury is a bit of a mystery in that Durant was still in Tuesday’s game until the starters were yanked in garbage time. … Former Warrior Harrison Barnes is listed as questionable because of a sprained left ankle suffered Saturday at Sacramento. He did not play Monday against the Clippers, but practiced Wednesday. Mavericks guard Seth Curry — the younger brother of you know who — will wind up missing the entire season after undergoing surgery on a stress fracture in his left tibia. Center Nerlens Noel, who has been out since Nov. 22 after surgery for a torn ligament in his left thumb, could be back after the All-Star break.

The Thunder was the beneficiary of 60 extra points provided by the Warriors on Tuesday night. Golden State gave Oklahoma City 38 points on 25 turnovers, and also allowed 22 second-chance point on 10 offensive rebounds.

The Warriors piled up five technical fouls on Tuesday, led by Green. He was ejected with two to raise his season total to a league-leading 13. That’s three short of a mandatory one-game suspension. Coach Steve Kerr and sixth man Andre Iguodala also received technicals. The most bizarre one was called on reserve center David West, who got his for hitting Patrick Patterson with an elbow to the back of the head. That was deserved. The odd part? It was Patterson who was whistled for a personal foul against West while he was being elbowed.

Before this season, only two teams had defeated the Warriors twice in one season during the Kerr Era: San Antonio (2014-15 and 2016-17) and Memphis (2016-17). But in the past 2½ weeks, three teams have joined what used to be an exclusive club. Houston beat Golden State for the second time on Jan. 20, Denver achieved the feat last Saturday and Oklahoma City gained membership Tuesday.

If the Thunder were to meet the Warriors in the playoffs, it could do so brimming with confidence. Oklahoma City is 2-0 against Golden State this season with two games remaining. The next matchup comes up quickly: Feb. 24 at Oracle Arena in a national network game on ABC.

Powell has started the past three games at center for the Mavericks, averaging 10.7 points (on 75.0-percent shooting) and 8.7 rebounds in 29.3 minutes. In the last Dallas-Golden State game, Powell was impressive. He came off the bench and had 21 points and eight rebounds in 28:06.

This is the first time the Warriors lost consecutive games since last March 8-11 when they were defeated by Boston at home, at Minnesota and at San Antonio.

Paul George certainly had it Tuesday night. The Thunder forward showed off his terrific all-around game with 38 points and six steals. Even as impressive as that steals total was, it really didn’t indicate how great his defense was that night.

Early on, Durant (33 points) and Westbrook (34) looked as if they were going to stage a high-stakes scoring duel (until George scored 21 points in the second half). Westbrook was unstoppable in the first quarter, scoring 21 on 9-of-11 shooting. Durant nearly kept up with 17 in the period.

Oklahoma City did its damage even with limited contributions from Carmelo Anthony and Steven Adams. Anthony got tangled up with Curry while running up the floor in the first quarter and suffered a sprained right ankle. Adams was in foul trouble in the first half. Even with two-thirds of its starting frontcourt combining for 11:19 (Anthony 6:01, Adams 5:18) in the half, Oklahoma City still scored 42 points in the first quarter and 70 in the first half.